The Georgic

2025 marks 20 years since the release of Jim Causley’s debut album ‘Fruits of the Earth’ which gained him his first BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nomination; the Horizon Award for Best Newcomer.

It also marks 22 years of Jim’s career as a performer on the national folk scene.

The Georgic will be Jim’s second album of his own self-penned songs – the follow-up to 2016’s Forgotten Kingdom – and his twelfth solo studio album.

The catalyst for this new collection of songs came through Jim’s involvement in artist Simon Pope’s Here’s to Thee project which set out to create a brand new wassail ceremony to honour the “unseen” elements of traditional cider-making; the yeasts, bacteria, lichen, mould & fungi etc. Jim first composed The Halstow Wassail for this new custom which was held on Halstow Farm in Mid-Devon where the Gray family have been making traditional farmhouse cider for over 400 years. Then came lockdowns in 2021 which delayed the wassail being held in the traditional month of January so Jim composed a song for a new ceremony: the “Blossail” – which was a combination of a wassail and English maying customs.

Jim went on to compose two more seasonal songs for the cider-making year on the farm: one for rogation or beating-the-bounds and another for the apple harvest in the autumn. These songs were recorded live on Halstow Farm. The rest of the album is made up of songs about the trials and tribulations contemporary rural life told through a folk idiom. From the hardship of farming in the 20th century, the loss of native species to the housing crisis affecting rural working class people. Some are inspired by traditional songs and some are completely original. This album is as raw and earthy as the subject matter is represents but also uplifting, moving and poignant in equal measure. Jim is joined by a host of well regarded musicians and singers from the English folk scene as well involving many people from the local community as well.

During The Georgic Tour Jim will perform a set comprised entirely of his own songs. All the songs from The Georgic as well as compositions from Forgotten Kingdom, and other previous works.

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